There are surely many saxophonists and environmentalists, but very few environmentalist/saxophonists. Most influential is Paul Winter, about whom Bob Gluck has written the first book, now available from Terra Nova in a paperback, expanded edition.

Gluck’s narrative follows Winter’s fascinating path, from a small central Pennsylvania railroad town to touring South America at the invitation of the U.S. State Department, playing at the Kennedy White House, recording in the Grand Canyon, playing music to whales in ocean, and for four decades, crafting an annual multi-media celebration of the Summer Solstice at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York City. Gluck traces the evolving story of Paul Winter’s “Consort,” a group modeled upon an Elizabethan-era ensemble while incorporating music of many cultures and species.

Paul Winter has, for five decades, harnessed his gift for melody, love of aesthetic beauty, and infectious optimism to increase societal empathy for endangered species and this fragile planet. In this book, Bob Gluck captures the wonder and adventure of Paul Winter’s musical odyssey.

Bob Gluck, writer, pianist, and rabbi, is the author of Pat Metheny, Stories beyond Words (2024) and two other books from University of Chicago Press. The latest of his fourteen recordings are Early Morning Star (2020) and the forthcoming Transcendence, Music of Pat Metheny (both from FMR Records). Bob Gluck is Professor Emeritus at the University at Albany in Albany, New York.

“ For millions of listeners world-wide, Paul Winter’s music provides the wholeness that comes as we recognize our place in the vastness of the world. In The Musical World of Paul Winter, author Bob Gluck has done his  homework. The biographical resonance is further burnished by extensive quotes from Winter's gifted colleagues articulating the guiding aesthetic that has, for sixty-five years and counting, radiated throughout his musical collaborations. And this book goes beyond one musician’s story directly into your own. It gets you to musing, “Where do I really fit in? Where does anyone?” 

— W. A. Mathieu

5.5” x 8.25”

12 black and white illustrations

$19.95